Innovations In Brass kicked off the first weekend of DCI 2018 on FloMarching with an exciting finish to the evening in Akron, Ohio—a classic Bluecoats encore. Saturday night showed us The Cadets' program for the first time in 2018 and Bluecoats scored higher than last year's bronze medalist, Carolina Crown. 

We also got a chance to see Crossmen in their new duds—oh and it turns out they can march pretty well, too.

Presenting our 2018 production,
“The In-Between”⏳
Thank you to @fjminc for helping us create such a spectacular look for our 44th season!#TheInBetween #crossmen #dci2018 #FJM pic.twitter.com/8Oyd5rxEMh

— Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps (@Crossmen) June 23, 2018

Crossmen Visual Program Reaching New Heights

Along with their brand new look, the Crossmen visual program has taken some noticeable steps in the right direction this season, already.

After all was said and done, Crossmen earned a 63.850, putting them in fifth behind Phantom Regiment, The Cadets, Carolina Crown, and Bluecoats. Each of these groups is used to seeing itself above Crossmen but one detail from the scoring recaps has kept Crossmen closer to this pack than usual: visual.

The corps earned a 19.05 in the visual caption, only 0.05 behind Phantom Regiment (19.10). Crossmen topped the corps from Rockford by 0.1 in visual proficiency and 0.4 in visual analysis. It was Phantom's color guard that kept them ahead, with a differential of 0.6 of a point in the sub-caption.

Since 2017 alone, Crossmen have improved their first visual number of the season by 0.3.

It will be interesting to watch as Crossmen gains ground on their closest competition. The most improvement can be made in the music caption, but their general effect is just a short putt away from numbers being earned by top 10 corps in June.

Bluecoats Come Out With A 'W'

Nothing like starting your season with a little "blooooo" and gold. The corps out of Canton has managed to earn the top spot against corps like Carolina Crown and The Cavaliers both times they've seen the two in 2018, so far. Bluecoats already improved their score from a 70.300 at the Tour Premiere to a 71.600 in Akron, setting the bar high and the pace even higher for corps at the highest level at the activity.

Both Carolina Crown and The Cavaliers scored higher at the 2017 DCI World Championship finals, so Bluecoats are on track to shoot for a medal by August.